Whatever is on my mind: politics, the news, philosophy, poetry and satire.

Monday, April 09, 2012

WHY I ENDORSE EILEEN BRADY FOR MAYOR OF PORTLAND, AND DISAGREE WITH THE OREGONIAN EDITORIAL BOARD

The Oregonian has endorsed
Charlie Hales for the next Portland Mayor, and I strongly disagree. The Oregonian
endorsement is based on specific qualities of their candidate: "a mayor
who's ready to lead...experience on the Portland City Council...a record of
accomplishment on jobs, transportation, parks and public
safety...leadership." This sounds all too familiar, like this
Oregonian endorsement of another former City Council member: "City
Commissioner Sam Adams has delivered on his promises to businesses, bicyclists
and other Portlanders. He has the drive, political savvy and vision to be mayor"
(2008).

The mistake made by the
Oregonian is to choose a candidate based on a stereotype of what qualities the
right candidate should have. Leadership, accomplishments and experience are
certainly admirable qualities, but are these the only things a good mayor needs?
I think not, as history has shown. Each of the three mayoral candidates has
her/his own unique set of experiences, accomplishments and leadership
qualities. Choosing between them on this basis doesn't get us very far. The
Oregonian would have us only elect someone who has already served on the City
Council; this is a very limiting proposition.

Portland is a good city
aspiring to be a great city. There are certain things that hold us back, some
of them inherent in our specific form of government, some based in the
different visions of people in city management positions, and others based in
the agendas of the multitude of interests and groups that make up our
citizenry. What can a mayor do with this mix to move Portland forward? What
qualities need a mayor have to change our direction on those pathways that need
a new direction? I have seen the qualities needed in Eileen Brady.

Paul Hawken, the
businessman, author and sustainability guru who spoke at an Eileen Brady for
Mayor event, used the term "reimagine" when discussing how to effect
change in our society. That word stuck with me, and the following day I
realized that it is the perfect word for articulating a major quality Eileen
has, the ability to reimagine. Eileen's experience, accomplishments and
leadership are forged from her ability to bring people together to not merely
solve a problem, but to reimagine an issue in a way that avoids problems rather
than having to solve them because they can't be avoided.

As a business owner in
Portland for the past few decades, I've experienced first hand the multitude of
issues one often hears from our business community when it comes to doing
business here. As a consultant to both the public and private sectors,
including contracts with the City, I've seen these issues from all sides.
Portland does a lot right, but it also does a lot wrong, and this holds us back
in many ways. Eileen Brady talks about the issues that she sees not only
holding us back as a city, but, more importantly, holding us back as individuals
who are the moving parts of the city. She voices concerns about the future,
based on her view of the pathways leading forward from the place we are now.
This is not a message of doom and gloom; this is a message of hope based on her
firm belief that working together, we Portlanders can steer a course to a
vibrant and thriving future.

The Oregonian endorsed
Charlie Hales because his set of experiences, accomplishments and leadership as
a City Council member resulted in his knowledge of where the levers of city
government are and which ones need to be pulled in order to keep the City that
Works machinery working. That's fine, if what we want is yet another political
lever-puller.

I endorse Eileen Brady for
Portland Mayor because she understands that moving Portland forward from these
troubled times into a better future for everyone simply cannot be accomplished
by keeping the old machinery running. We need a leader of a different kind, one
who can help us reimagine the City of Portland as a great city, a city that
works for everyone because we all make it work together.

1 comment:

As always I respect your opinion and our different choices. We are blessed in many ways to have so many talented candidates.

What I don't see in Eileen is a good grasp of policy, of the details involved in running a city like Portland in the system we have. Indeed, so of her "ideas" are ideas already in motion, which tells me that 1. she is out of touch and 2. that she is a typical business person running to make government run more like a business.

I love her campaign. Like Obama's, I have no doubt that the truth will be much further from that. I do believe that we have real issues as a city and I believe that as boring as he might seem that Charlie has the ability to actually get things done.